A documentary chronicling the coming of age of a young chinese man.

Workers, peasants, soldiers, students and merchants were five groups of Chinese society in the 1950s, after the so-called elimination of the exploited class. Borrowing this concept, the umbrella is taken as the clue to rediscover changes in various social classes after the economic reform, and to analyze the social problems in China. Workers making umbrellas, merchants selling umbrellas, students looking for jobs in the rain. Umbrella is used as a metaphor that can be seen everywhere. As the raindrop, what we see is sometimes clear, sometimes untraceable.

梗概： 阿毅和阿彬同在北京一家物业公司打工，住在一幢豪华商住两用楼的地下四层，他们上面是停车场和物业办公的地方。阿彬快四十岁了，他十·一去湖北农村结了婚，妻子阿娇是别人介绍的，这之前他们见过两次面；阿毅在年前回了一趟四川老家，这样春节值班就能拿双份工资。他的家在山里，坐完火车倒长途汽车，下了长途汽车再倒卡车，然后再乘一段摩托车，最后还要走近两个小时的山路。片中记录了阿毅回家的过程，他背着沉重的行李，与家人在夜晚的山中遥相呼应。 阿毅上有老下有小。回家以后要处理很多生活的琐事，诸如买煤、换电灯泡、修电扇等。阿彬结完婚就回了公司，他对新婚没有感觉，心里还惦记着曾同居三年之久的前女友。阿毅春节前从老家回来，他们继续过着单调乏味没有故事的生活。 过年了，阿彬的妻子来到北京，和他一起住在地下室，她说这儿的生活“不如我们过得潇洒”。公司开联欢会，联欢的主要内容就是唱卡拉OK。阿毅在除夕之夜修好了楼前“Happy New Year”的霓虹灯。下雪了，纷纷的雪花飞舞着落向这个世界，落在彩灯和楼前的汽车上，值班的保安用对讲机兴奋地互相拜年，大声唱着“我怎么舍得你难过”……

This important, patient documentary follows a year in the life of the sidings dwellers who eke out a living, begging, foraging, stealing and sleeping rough near the Baoji railway station in Shaanxi.